A social media personality who fatally shot his wife and another man inside an East Village high-rise apartment was sentenced Friday to two consecutive terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus 50 years to life.
Ali Abulaban, 32 -- who was known in online circles as a content creator dubbed "JinnKid" -- was convicted in May of two counts of first-degree murder for the Oct. 21, 2021, shooting deaths of Ana Abulaban, 28, and Rayburn Cardenas Barron, 29.
Both victims were shot on a couch inside the Abulabans' 35th-floor unit at the Spire San Diego apartments.
In a statement issued after the sentencing, San Diego District Attorney Summer Stephan said, “This defendant mercilessly took the lives of two young people and the pain he left their families with is unimaginable. We hope the guilty jury verdicts and today’s sentence will bring some semblance of justice and peace for the families left behind in the wake of this terrible violence. Every year, domestic violence kills an average of 13 people in San Diego County. This is a statistic we must confront and continue to fight. One death at the hands of an intimate partner is one too many.”
During the trial, Deputy District Attorney Taren Brast argued Abulaban was enraged that his wife sought to leave him and planned on killing her and any man she was with.
She told jurors Abulaban "was so possessive and controlling of Ana that if he could not have her, no one could and she couldn't live. And any man she was with could not live either. This case was all about power and control until the very end."
Abulaban and his defense attorney, Jodi Green, sought a voluntary manslaughter conviction and claimed that after months of suspecting his wife was cheating, Abulaban was overcome with emotion upon seeing her on the couch with another man and opened fire on the pair without any control over his actions.
(Photo reporting partner 10News)